2015/05/09 by Phil Attard, Attard, Phil
Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Minerals Flotation and Separation Techniques #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.chem-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1505.02217
16 pages, 12 figures
arxiv created 2015/05/09 · openalex publication_date 2015/05/09 · arxiv updated 2015/05/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is shown that when the nanobubble contact line is pinned to a penetrating tip the interface behaves like a Hookean spring with spring constant proportional to the nanobubble surface tension. Atomic force microscope (AFM) data for several nanobubbles and solutions are analysed and yield surface tensions in the range 0.04--0.05 N/m (compared to 0.072 N/m for saturated water), and supersaturation ratios in the range 2--5. These are the first direct measurements of the surface tension of a supersaturated air-water interface. The results are consistent with recent theories of nanobubble size and stability, and with computer simulations of the surface tension of a supersaturated solution.